Adjustable cup dispenser



Feb. 5, 1957 P. A. STEPHENSON ADJUSTABLE CUP DISPENSER Fi 1ed may 4,1954 INVENTOR. PA UL A. STEPHENSON TORNEYS United States PatentADJUSTABLE CUP DISPENSER Paul A. Stephenson, Hamden, Conn., assignor, bymesne assignments, to Continental Can Company, Inc, New York, N. Y., acorporation of New York Application May 4, 1954, Serial No. 427,534

4 Claims. (Cl. 221-44) The present invention relates to dispensers forpaper cups and the like.

The principal object of the invention is to provide an improved cupdispenser which is readily and conveniently adjustable to accommodatedifferent sizes of cups.

Another object is to provide a cup dispenser having improved means forsupporting cups of variou sizes in the proper manner to enable simpleand foolproof extraction of the cups one at a time.

Another object is to provide an improved cup dispenser of simplified andrugged construction, which is inexpensive to manufacture, attractive inappearance, and may be readily and easily installed in any convenientlocation.

Other object will be in part obvious, and in part pointed out more indetail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction,combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will beexemplified in the construction hereafter set forth and the scope of theapplication of which will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the drawing:

Figure l :is a front elevation view of a cup dispenser constructed inaccordance with the present invention;

Figure 2 is a side view of the structure shown in Figure 1;

'Figure 3 is a top view of the structure shown in Fig ure 1 with thecover plate removed; and

I Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of the structureshown in Figure 3, taken on the line 44 thereof.

Referring to the drawing, a preferred embodiment of a cup dispenserconstructed in accordance with the present invention includes 'anelongate hollow casing 2 which may be constructed of stainless steelsheet metal or the like. The casing is of two-piece construction,consisting of a channel-shaped rear case member 4 having a rear wall 6and forwardly extending side walls 8, 10, and a complementedchannel-shaped front case member 12 having a front wall 14 andrearwardly extending side walls 16, 18. The side edges of the front wallare preferably bent diagonally rearward to provide beveled corners 20,22, which enhance the appearance of the dispenser.

The front and rear case members .are arranged to accommodate a stack ofnested cups therebetween, and the top of the casing is closed by a cover24 hingedly connected by rive-ts 26 or the like to the rear case member4. The cover '24 has downwardly projecting flanges 28 which enclose theupper edge of the casing 2, and thus permits cups to be easily loadedinto the top of the dispenser but prevents the entrance of foreignmaterial. The casing 2 is open at its bottom end, to permit the cups tobe easily manually extracted one at a time.

The casing 2 i adapted to be mounted in a generally upright'position andfor this purpose there is secured to the rear wall 6 of the rear casemember 4 by a rivet 2,780,388 Patented Feb. 5, 1957 2 30 or the like atapered clip 32 which is adapted to slip over a matching taperedbracket, not shown, mounted in any convenient location on a wall orother support. With this arrangement the dispenser may be readily takendown for reloading, cleaning, or the like.

The case members 4, '12 are hingedly connected to-.

gether by rivets 36, 38 at their upper ends, and thus are relativelymovable about a lateral. axis. Front case member 12 is slightly widerthan rear case member 4 so that the rearward edges of the side walls 16,'18 of the front case member overlap the forward edges of the side walls8, 10 of the rear case member. The case members are thus arranged totelescope together at their lower ends during relative pivotal movement.To permit adjustment of the case members with any desired spacing of thefront wall 14 and rear Wall 6, side walls 8, 10 are provided withthreaded studs 40, 42 which extend outwardly through horizontallydisposed slots 44, 46 in side walls 16, 18. The case members may beclamped with their lower ends in any desired relative position bytightening knurled nuts 48, 50 on the threaded studs 40, 42. Whenadjusted for maximum spacing, front wall 14 and rear wall 6 areparallel.

A stack of cup is supported within the casing 2 by a plurality ofelongate vertically disposed retainer plates 52, 54, 56, 58 provided onthe inside lower portion of the casing. The retainer plates are arrangedin two opposed pa-irs which may be identical in shape. The plates 52, 54of the rearward pair are disposed in laterally spaced forwardly andoutwardly extending relation, generally diagonally of the rear cornersof "the casing, and are supported in this position by flanges 60, 62secured in overlapping relation to the rear wall 6 of rear case member 4by a pair of vertically spaced rivets 64, 66. The plates 56, 58 of theforward pair are disposed generally opposite plates 52, 54, in laterallyspaced rearwardly and outwardly extending relation, and generallyparallel to beveledcorner 20, 22. The forward plates 56, 58 havevertically extending overlapping flanges 68, 70 which are secured attheir upper end-s to the front wall 14 of front case member 12 by arivet 72. The retainer plates are formed wit-h seats or shoulders 74adjacent their lower ends which are arranged to engage and'support thebottom cup in the stack at equally spaced points about it brim. Theshoulders 74 are preferably slightly downwardly inclined to permit easy'extraction of the bo'ttom cup, and are spaced close enough to the bottom'of the casing so that the bottom cup protrudes sufliciently to beeasily grasped for extraction. The upper edges of the retainer platesare bevelled as shown in Figure 4," as to incline downwardly, and thuavoid obstructing downward flow of the cups in the casing.

To permit adjustment of the lateral spacing of the front pair ofretainer plates 56, 58, the tower ends of the flanges 68, 79 areprovided with oppositely inclined slots 76, 78 through which extends astud 80 which is slidably accommodated in a vertical slot 82 in frontwall 14. By moving the stud 80 up and down, the lower ends of the plates56, 58 may be moved laterally toward or away from each other to adjustthe spacing of the shoulders in these plates. The outer end of stud 80is threaded to receive a knurled binder nut 84 which serves as a knobfor adjusting the stud 80 and can be tightened to secure the plates 56,58 with any desired lateral spacing.

I-t will thus be readily apparent that the cup dispenser describedherein can .be quickly and easily adjusted to accommodate cups of anydesired brim diameter. By loosening nuts 48, 50 and pivoting the frontcase member -12 relative to the rear case member 4,'the spacing of frontwall 14 from back wall 6, and hence the spacing of the forward retainerplates 56, 58 from the rear greases retainer plates 52, 54, can beadjusted to any desired value in accordance with the brim size of thecups to be supported. By loosening nut 84 and raising or lowering stud80, the lateral spacing of the forward retainer plates 56, 58 can beadjusted to a value corresponding to the spacing of the forward pairfrom the rearward pair. Since the retainer plates and shoulders 74 areangularly disposed, the stack of cups supported by the shoulders will becentered automatically at a point such that the lowermost cup of thestack Will be engaged by all of the shoulders 74 at points spaced aboutits periphery, and the stack of cups will thus be retained in thedispenser in a stable and secure fashion. Preferably, the retainerplates of each pair are perpendicular to each other as shown in Figure3, and thus the several shoulders 74 will engage a stack of cups atequidistant points on its periphery. This provides optimum support aswell as maximum range of adjustment. When the case members are pivotedtogether and the front retainer plates 56, 58 are swung closer togetherto accommodate smaller cups, the retainer plates are inclined to thevertical and thus provide a funnel effect which helps guide the cupsdown to proper seating engagement with shoulders 74.

The spacing of the shoulders should be adjusted so that when thelowermost cup is pulled downwardly to extract it from the casing, itsbrim is somewhat distorted by the shoulders 74, which separates it fromthe cup above and insures that only one cup at a time will be extracted.Each retainer plate has a lip 86 extending downwardly from the inneredge of its shoulder, which maintains the cup brim in somewhat distortedcondition during its extraction and thus aids in preventing more thanone cup at a time from being dispensed.

Thus there has been shown and described an improved cup dispenser whichmay be readily adjusted to accommodate cups of any desired size in theproper manner to support the cups in a stack firmly and securely withinthe dispenser, while insuring that cups can be easily and quicklyextracted from the dispenser by hand, one at a time, and in a reliableand foolproof manner.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and manyapparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be madewithout departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all mattercontained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawingsshall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the followingclaims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features ofthe invention herein described and all statements of the scope of theinvention which, as a matter of language, might be said to falltherebetween.

I claim:

1. In a cup dispenser, a casing including upright front and rear casemembers adapted to enclose a stack of cups, means for mounting the frontcase member for adjustment forwardly and rearwardly relative to saidrear case member, a pair of forwardly and outwardly inclined stiff firstsupports on said rear case member arranged to engage the bottom cup ofsaid stack at spaced points on its brim, a pair of rearwardly andoutwardly inclined stiff second supports mounted on said front casemember for adjustments relative to each other and arranged to engagesaid bottom cup at points oppositely spaced from said first supports,means for adjusting the spacing of the supports of said pair of secondsupports in accordance with cup size, and means for securing said casemembers in an adjusted position to space said pair of first supportsfrom said pair of second supports in accordance with cup size.

2. A cup dispenser for accommodating cups of different sizes comprisinga casing including complemental upright front and rear case memberspivotally connected at their upper ends and adapted to enclose a stackof cups, a pair 4 of rear retainer plates connected to said rear casemember adjacent its lower end and having forwardly and outwardlyinclined first shoulders engageable with the bottom cup of said stack atspaced points on its brim, a pair of front retainer plates pivotallyconnected to said front case member at its lower end and havingrearwardly and outwardly inclined second shoulders adapted to engagesaid bottom cup at points oppositely spaced from said first shoulders,oppositely inclined slots in said front retainer plates, a studvertically slidable in said front case member and engageable with saidoppositely inclined slots to adjust the lateral spacing Of said frontretainer plates in accordance with cup diameter, means for locking saidstud in vertically adjusted position, and means for adjusting thespacing of the lower ends of said case members in accordance with thelateral spacing of said front retainer plates.

3. In a cup dispenser, a casing including an elongate forwardly concaverear case member and an elongate rearwardly concave front case memberpivotally connected at one end to the rear case member for adjustmentrelative thereto, said case members having telescoping sides and beingadapted to receive a stack of cups therebetween, a pair of firstretainer plates supported from the lower end of said rear case memberand having laterally spaced diagonally forwardly extending seats, a

' pair of second retained plates supported from the lower end of saidfront case member and having laterally spaced diagonally rearwardlyextending seats, said seats being arranged to support the bottom cup ofsaid stack at spaced points about the rim thereof, means for adjustablymounting the retainer plates of one of said pairs of retainer plates forchanging the lateral spacing therebetween to accommodate cups ofdifferent sizes, and means for securing said front case member inadjusted position relative to said rear case member for correspondinglyadjusting the spacing of said pair of first retainer plates from saidpair of second retainer plates in accordance with cup size.

4. In a cup dispenser, a casing including upright front and rear casemembers adapted to receive and enclose a stack of cups with the frontcase member mounted on the rear case member for adjustment forwardly andrearwardly relative thereto, a pair of forwardly and outwardly inclinedrigid first supports carried by said rear case member arranged to engagethe bottom cup of the stack at circumferentially spaced points on itsbrim, a pair of rearwardly and outwardly inclined rigid second supportsmounted on the front case member for movement relative to each other andarranged to engage said bottom cup at circumferentially spaced points onthe brim thereof generally diametrically opposite to the contact pointsof said first supports, means on the casing manually engageableexteriorly thereof for securing the front case member in adjustedposition relative to the rear case member to correspondingly adjust thespacing of the pair of first supports from the pair of second supportsin accordance with the cup size, means on said pair of second supportsand said front case member manually engageable exteriorly of the casingto adjust and secure the supports of said pair of second supportsrelative to each other in accordance with cup size, and a lip dependingfrom the inner edge of each of said supports for deflecting the brim ofthe bottom cup inwardly during withdrawal thereof from the dispenser toprevent removal of more than one cup at a time.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,027,353 Mosteller May 21, 1912 2,369,933 Amberg Feb. 20, 19452,373,217 Allen Apr. 10, 1945 2,487,736 Sims Nov. 8, 1949 2,520,538Gilbertsen Aug. 29, 1950 2,630,361 Carew Mar. 3, 1953

